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| climate fiction |
Below on this page is Chapter 2 of the science fiction story "The Hierozyme Intervention", which concerns Marda's third day at school with Tyhry and then continues after school when Tyhry visits Marda's home. Marda is not a typical 12-year old; she is the host for a time-traveling zeptozoan from the future, Ylyndra, the hidden agent for Manny the bumpha. With hints from Ylyndra, Marda is certain that what Eddy Watson publishes as science fiction is more than just the product of Eddy's imagination.
Marda has arranged to move to Eddy's "backyard" (actually five miles away) and Marda is trying to get to Eddy through Tyhry, Eddy's daughter. In Chapter 2, below, Marda finds one of Tyhry's hairs inside Tyhry's helmet. Marda reveals to Tyhry the depth of her obsession over Eddy Watson's science fiction stories. Marda invites Tyhry to "come over for dinner" and then they will be able to get started on their project for chemistry class.
The Hierozyme Intervention Chapter 2 - Team Work (read Chapter 1)
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| Marda in 2026. Still using the Brute. |
Marda was waiting impatiently for the school bus to arrive for her third day of school in Arizona. Her mother was sitting inside the cab of her Jeep Brute with the air-conditioner running. Marda was pacing in the steel bed and kept glancing down the highway, trying to spot the approaching bus. Rylla had offered to drive Marda to school, but Marda was trying to get to know her new classmates. Finally the bus appeared and Marda leaped out of the Jeep's bed and she crossed the road. She waved to her mother. The bus slowed and Marda climbed aboard. At the first seat that held only one student, Marda sat down and said, "Hi, I'm Marda. You are Kevin?"
Kevin nodded. "Yep. How'd you know?"
Marda was reluctant to reveal all of her sources of information, so she tried to ignore Kevin's question. Marda asked, "Do you know Tyhry?"
"Sure. She's in the next grade above me. How do you know my name?"
"Yesterday, I heard the driver call you Kevin." Marda pulled her backpack off of her shoulder and set it in her lap. "You ever hang out with Tyhry?"
"Are you kidding? She's out of my league."
"What does that mean?"
"She's like you."
Marda laughed. "Nobody is like me." Marda held out her hand. "Look, I'm new here. I want to be friends."
Kevin shook Marda's hand. "Where you from?"
Marda kept holding his hand and looking into his eyes. "I moved here from Perth." Kevin looked at her blankly. "That's in Australia."
"I was born in California. I suppose I don't really have any special accent. Which lunch period do you have today?"
"Second."
"Sit with Tyhry and me today."
"What about my friend Tim? I usually sit with him for lunch."
"Sure, both you and Tim. I'll introduce you to Tyhry." Marda watched his face. With her hand in contact with his and having spoken to Kevin for a few minutes, Marda was able to sense the outlines of his mind. "You like her."
"She's amazing. Too good for me."
"Don't say that. If you like someone you should tell them. They might become your friend."
"I know." He looked at their hands. It was hot on the bus and their hands were wet with sweat. "I'm a sucker for cute blonds. When I see Tyhry I can't think straight. She gives me shivers. I doubt if I'd be able to speak to her."
"Nonsense. You can only talk to me because I inherited dark hair from my father?"
"You are easy to talk to. My mom says some people have the gift of gab. You do."
"Gift or curse? I wonder. What's your favorite subject?" They talked all the way to school. When they got off the bus she reminded him, "Remember: lunch. Wear sunglasses so you are not tongue-tied by the bright shining of Tyhry's golden locks." Marda had spotted Tyhry's beautiful bright hair over by a shed behind the school. That's where Marda found Tyhry at work with the school's custodian repairing the big ride-on mower that that was used to mow the grass on the sports playing fields and the playground.
The custodian held up a hand that was covered with grass and grease stains. "Meg." Then Meg told Tyhry, "Thanks. I can do the rest."
"Glad to help... I'm almost done." Tyhry kept re-assembling the mower. Tyhry told Marda, "Meg lets me park my bike in the shed."
Marda had already gone to the open door of the storage shed. She picked up Tyhry's helmet. "Don't forget. You promised me a ride."
Tyhry was using a wrench to tighten a bold. "I told you. You need a helmet."
Marda was looking intently into the interior of Tyhry's helmet, letting the morning light illuminate its nooks and crannies. There were several of Tyhry's golden hairs stuck to the plastic cushions. "I ordered one online." Marda pulled a small plastic bag out of her pocket and placed the hairs in the bag. She hung the helmet on the handlebar of the bike and turned back towards Tyhry.
Tyhry handed the wrench to Meg. "That should do it." The first bell rang.
Tyhry and Marda ran to get to their homeroom before the second bell. They burst in just as the bell rang. The teacher asked Tyhry, "Late again?"
Tyhry held up her filthy hands. "I was helping Meg with a repair."
The teacher told Marda, "Just because golden girl Tyhry always gets away with anything, don't use her as your model."
Marda half sung, half said, "She is the very model of a major breach of discipline."
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| Image generated by Flow. |
Later, after lunch, in their chemistry class, it was announced that the students would be working in teams on a term paper. Marda was approached by the chemistry teacher. "Marda, I want you to work with Tyhry. She usually works alone."
Marda glanced at Tyhry. "That's fine."
All the students had paired off. Marda asked Tyhry, "Why work alone?"
"There's little point in me doing all the work and having a lab partner who does nothing. Its not fair to the other student... they don't learn anything."
"I see. Well, you won't have that problem with me. In fact, I've already decided on the topic of our project: the chemistry of microbial carbon sequestration."
Tyhry shook her head, "No. That's biochemistry."
Marda's hand shot up. She asked the teacher, "Can we do a biochemistry project?"
The teacher asked, "What do you have in mind?"
"Something related to global warming. Maybe ocean microbe carbon sequestration."
"That's fine, just keep it on the chemistry side. This isn't freshman biology. Your grade depends on showing me that you have learned some chemistry."
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| Battlefield Lipid. |
"It will be a breeze. Your father already did all the research."
"What are you talking about?"
"In his novel, Battlefield Lipid, Carbonix profundis."
"You've read Battlefield Lipid ?"
"I've read all of his novels."
Tyhry objected, "We have to do our own work, not copy passages out of dad's novel."
"Fine. We'll go to the next step. Eddy never explained how Carbonix profundis would sink so much carbon to the ocean floor without depleting the surface waters of needed nutrients like phosphorous. We'll solve that problem in our paper. We'll get started tonight. Come over to my place for dinner. I told my mom to expect you."
"Wait, what?"
"My mom visited your parents yesterday. My mom already invited your mom to visit us. And Zeta accepted. She might already be there... right now."
"Your mother visited Casanay?"
Marda nodded. "I think she has a crush on Anthony. Mom could not stop talking about him. He is single, right?"
The teacher happened to walk by just then. "You two are working?"
The teacher was called across the room by another team of students. Tyhry said, "My mom and dad use Wildblue. Dad uses the internet for his research... he seldom goes to a library anymore."
"Why not?"
Tyhry shrugged. "He says he has no time. He's busy. A novel writing machine."
"But that's not the real reason?"
"I suppose he's a recluse, like me. I know what it is like to be busy. Sometimes it drives me crazy, knowing what I could be doing if I did not have to be in school."
Marda laughed. "Busy with what? Repairing lawn mowers?"
Tyhry proclaimed, "I can fix any broken machine."
"I'll take that as a challenge." A look of mischief sparkled in Marda's big brown eyes. "You know, we could view Earth's environment as a broken machine. Too much carbon dioxide."
"You might as well just say too many humans."
Marda asked, "Is that your solution for global warming? Birth control?"
"Well, that seems simpler than shooting for a nuclear winter." Tyhry giggled.
Marda grimaced. "You have a sick sense of humor."
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| Tim. Image generated by Flow. |
"I was making a new friend. You should try it for once in your life."
Tyhry provided her assessment of the two boys. "Kevin and Tim are both rather... dull."
Marda sighed at Tyhry's blunt characterization of the two boys. "Rather full of yourself, aren't you, Tyhry?"
"I have my own interests. They don't include The Mast Effect, or what ever Kevin was trying to tell me about at lunch."
"Mass Effect."
"Mass? E=MC2 mass? I thought he was saying 'mast'." Tyhry shrugged. "Anyhow, I'm not interested in computer games. I built my own computer with an Intel X58 motherboard with a six-core i7-980X processor feeding twin, GeForce GTX 480 graphics cards and terabyte storage."
"Wow, so much storage... do you have a world-class porn collection?"
"Its for my hobby. I'm building a layered neural network that simulates visual cortex function. I'm combining feedforward cascades and weight sharing in my cortex simulation, but my strategy for sparse coding and lateral inhibition is failing to achieve the kind of edge detection I am hoping for. I want to give my bike human-like vision and a self-driving capability."
"Bah. Human vision was never evolved for a task like that. Using the human brain as your model, you'll just end up with an automated banana picker."
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| Tyhry. Image generated by Flow. "Whitespace" song. |
"Well, I was impressed by Tim's nose picking... so there is that, too."
"That was disgusting. Please don't invite those two to eat with us again."
"Tyhry, you have to be diplomatic and you have to have friends." Marda could see the look of skepticism on Tyhry's face. She changed the subject, "Can you find my place after school?"
"I'll stop by home first, since its on the way. I know where you live. I ride out that way fairly frequently on my bike." Tyhry and Marda exchanged phone numbers, then Tyhry said, "I did not think construction was completed. How much land did you buy up?"
"We're living in a mobile home until construction of the house is finished. We got 2,500 acres."
"That must back up pretty close to my backyard. We really are neighbors." Tyhry suggested, "The alternative is that you could come to my place."
Marda shook her head. "All in due time. You need to meet my mom."
"Why?"
Marda shrugged. "I think she wants to pick your brain about Anthony. He's lived at Casanay for fifteen years?"
"Something like that. Your mom might be in for disappointment. There's no evidence that Anthony likes women."
"He's pretty artistic. Carves stone, wood... he paints. Sometimes we call Casanay the 'Anthony Museum'. I suspect some of his works of art are illegal... big carved chunks of petrified wood. I've asked where it came from and he just says 'I have my source'."
"Interesting. Illegal art. This I have to see, particularly given what your father has written about Anthony."
“Dad has written Anthony into some of his science fiction stories. Anthony thinks it is hilarious.”
“Ya, that's exactly how I'd do it, too.”
“Do what?”
“If I was an alien spy, I'd try to laugh it off when Eddy tells the world I'm an alien spy.”
“So, you are some kind of UFO nut?”
“I've read your father's novels. He never made a single mention of UFOs.”
“Don't mince words. For his stories, Dad pretends that aliens frequently visit Casanay.”
“Don't mice words. Eddy describes himself as an alien. A tryp'At. That makes you an alien, too.” Marda asked, "What is Casanay?"
"That's what we call our home... 'Casanay'." Tyhry asked Marda, “If I'm an alien, why do I have to spend all day sitting in school?”
“Your mom is hoping that you will learn social skills.”
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| the tryp'At |
“Exactly.”
Tyhry giggled. “Marda, if I'm tryp'At, I should be able to read your mind, but everything you say surprises the hell out of me.”
“Well, we have not really tried to link telepathically.” Marda took hold of Tyhry's hand. “I don't understand why physical contact is supposed to help with telepathy.”
“Dad's theory is that telepaths would have to learn the pattern of another mind in order to...” Tyhry found herself imagining that she could now guess what Marda was about to say.
Marda said, “For the tryp'At, telepathy only works between people who are in love.”
“I knew you were going to say that.”
Marda had been watching the clock and she knew that the class period was almost over. She asked Tyhry, "Have you ever had any gene sequencing done?"
"Of course not. Have you?"
The bell rang, signalling the end of the class session. Marda let go of Tyhry's hand. Tyhry told Marda, "I'll call you when I depart from home." She added with a grin, "It should not take me long to get over to your place."
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Returning from school, Tyhry pulled up in front of Casanay and then ran inside. She found Zeta in her office. Eddy was out back swimming. "I'm going to Marda's for dinner."Zeta told Tyhry, "I was over there for... lunch... and helping Rylla with the landscaping."
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| Tyhry and Zeta. Image by Leonardo. |
"Yikes."
"You don't have to say anything. According to Rylla, that is still a tender topic for Marda."
"Why did he kill himself?"
"I don't know the details. Apparently, he was named in a lawsuit against Simpera... hundreds of millions were paid out."
"Thanks for the warning."
"Sure. Anything you want to tell me?"
Tyhry had long imagined that her mother could read her mind. "I think I'm falling in love with Marda." Tyhry felt her heart thudding in her chest. She knew she was fallen, not just falling.
"Well, good for you." Zeta hugged Tyhry. "Does she like you?"
"I can't tell. She invited me over... that must mean something."
Zeta held her tongue. Tyhry asked, "What?"
"I can't tell you everything Rylla told me about Marda. You deserve to have the fun of finding out for yourself."
"What does that mean?"
Zeta made a zipping motion with one hand across her lips.
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| Anthony and Tyhry. Image by Flow. |
"Ya. She just told me. I'm going to take a quick shower before you arrive. The bus ride home was incredibly hot and sweaty."
"I'm sweaty, too. I don't mind. And you don't have time." Tyhry landed her bike and pulled onto the driveway. This was her first time seeing the modular home that had recently been hauled onto the site adjacent to the larger house that was still being finished. Half a dozen trucks of workmen were in the driveway along with Rylla's Jeep. Marda's temporary home was actually four large modules that had been delivered on flatbed trucks and then merged together to make a temporary home with over 3,000 square feet of floor space.
Marda stepped outside and waved to Tyhry. Tyhry got off the bike and took off her helmet. Marda asked, "How did you get here so fast?"
Tyhry ignored that question from Marda and asked, "This is your temporary home? I was imagining a little trailer house."
"This will end up being a guest house once we move into the main house. Come in. Don't let my mom rattle you, no matter what weirdness she spouts. Sometimes she's not quite human in her blathering"
Tyhry followed Marda inside and was greeted by Rylla. "How interesting!" Rylla reached out with both hands and began playing with Tyhry's amazing nanite-enhanced hair.
Marda told her mother, "Mom, control yourself. Don't scare Tyhry off. I like her."
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| Tyhry. Image by Leonardo. |
Marda shook her head in dismay. Rylla seemed to be going off the deep end. Marda told Tyhry, "I'm sorry. My mom never learned how to behave."
"I'm cooking your dinner. Don't be so rude unless you want to be eating gruel." Rylla seemed to suddenly realize that Marda was not fully dressed and was, in fact, only wearing panties. Rylla asked Marda, "What happened to your shirt?"
"I was just stepping into the shower when Tyhry arrived."
"Well, put something on. Tyhry will think we're barbarians."
"Why should I have to wear a shirt? It was so hot today."
Tyhry giggled. "Just wait. It will get even hotter. And don't bother with a shirt. I've been fantasizing about seeing more of you. Well, to be honest... all of you."
Rylla told Marda, "Well, Tyhry comes by it honestly."
Marda asked, "What does that mean?"
Rylla told Tyhry, "Our hot tub is already installed."
Marda was standing under an air-conditioning vent and trying to cool herself. "We should have put in a cold tub."
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| Rylla and Zeta. Image by Leonardo. |
Later, when Tyhry and Marda arrived at the dinner table they were both wearing cute little silk robes, but had not bothered with the belts. Their regular clothes had been long since abandoned. Rylla watched Marda and Tyhry eat rather ravenously. Rylla said, "Zeta told me about her special connection to you."
Tyhry and Marda had shared a rather delightful kiss in the hot tub and Tyhry was now certain that she could sense Marda's thoughts when they were touching each other. Tyhry had been warned by Manny that such a thing was possible, if Tyhry ever ran into another telepath. "Not just mom. Your daughter too."
Rylla looked sharply at Marda. "Really?"
"I can't be sure. I feel something for Tyhry, but I would not call it telepathy." Marda lifted one of her hands and rubbed one of her erect nipples with her finger tips.
"You have to learn her mind pattern." Rylla said to Tyhry, "You don't seem surprised by any of this."
Tyhry shrugged and looked at Marda's pink nipples. Tyhry licked her lips and then said, "I have a special relationship with my mom. Sometimes I think she knows my thoughts."
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| Manny and Nyrtia. |
Tyhry asked, "How did you come to be obsessed with my father's science fiction stories?"
Marda shrugged. "It began three years ago when I started reading his novels. Then I found his website. You know how he invites fans to pretend to be aliens. I asked myself: what if it is not pretending? What if there really are aliens secretly living among the people of Earth?"
Tyhry chuckled. "If you want to get laughed at, try telling Eddy that you believe in space aliens."
Rylla asked Tyhry, "So, are you here to work on a chemistry project or to view my daughter's body?"
Marda made a minimal effort towards covering her little breasts with the fabric of her robe and explained, "Tyhry and I are a team for our term paper project. I want to do something related to global warming."
Rylla told Tyhry, "Marda is obsessed with carbon footprints. Guilt by association."
Tyhry paused her voracious eating. "Guilt?"
Rylla pointed to a photograph of a man that was on the wall. "My former husband was blamed for not preventing a terrible accidental methane release."
Tyhry shrugged. "If it was an accident, why harbor regrets and guilt?"
Marda told Tyhry, "The situation is absurdly frustrating. I'm sure that the technology exists to efficiently reduce atmospheric methane levels."
"Oh, it exists... I have no doubt about that. I'll know it when I see it, but first you have to look."
"What? I have to look?" There had been a strange idea that Tyhry had seen in Marda's thoughts: that maybe Marda knew about Tyhry's ability to program zeptites. But Tyhry asked, "Look where?"
Marda set down her fork, reached out and placed a hand on Tyhry's arm. "I suspect you already know. Maybe you are like Eddy... prevented from talking about it. I don't know... yet. That's why I'm here." She waved her other hand at their surroundings. "That's why you are here."
Tyhry was lost in Marda's big brown eyes. Finally she looked at Rylla and said, "I'm glad I'm here. You could teach Anthony a thing or two about cooking. I've fallen for your daughter, but..." Tyhry was now certain that Marda knew about zeptites. Tyhry wondered just how much Rylla knew about events inside Casanay. She continued, "... I don't know what she's talking about. Do you?"
Rylla shrugged. "I try to stay out of my daughter's business. Similarly, I'll try to stay out of your emotions, but be warned. Marda learned from her father how to use people. I advise you to think twice before giving her your heart."
Marda told her mother, "Mom, don't be so dramatic. Tyhry and I like each other. Really, it is inevitable that we'd feel a mutual attraction, considering the other options available to us here in hicksville USA."
Rylla said, "Please watch your mouth, Marda. You know there actually is a Hicksville."
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| Marda at lunch. Image generated by Flow. |
Rylla rolled her eyes. "You're a primate. You pick your nose, too."
Tyhry said, "But I'm sure that Marda picks her nose with style and grace."
Marda threw up her hands. "Fine. Here in this Mecca of civilization, it was just random chance that brought Tyhry and I together, despite my nose picking. And now, if you will excuse us from the table, we have to start our chemistry project." She popped to her feet.
Rylla told Marda, "You are excused from the table, but not for calling your school mates 'hicks'. They might not be sophisticated world travelers, but but you need to respect them as individuals and not paint them with a broad derogatory brush."
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| image source |
Marda turned her chair and pulled Tyhry close so that she was seated on her thighs. "Which is fine for the deep ocean deserts, but not for bio-diverse habitats like reefs. I'd like to ask Eddy his thoughts about photolysis of his imaginary glycolipoxan molecules."
Tyhry suggested, "You can visit us at Casanay any time you like. Eddy would love to meet one of his fans."
"Oh, he already knows me quite well. I've been the most frequent commenter at his blog for the past two years."
Tyhry occasionally heard Eddy and Zeta discussing his website. "You are 'Nyvad'?
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| Marda logged in as 'Nyvad'. |
Tyhry commented, "Not many of Eddy's fans volunteer to play the role of a pek in the online forum."
"I don't have anything against the idea of enforcing the Rules of Intervention. I take seriously the idea that technology-wielding apes could cause their own extinction, or short of that, turn Earth into a hellhole."
Marda now had both of her hands on the soft skin of Tyhry's thighs. Suddenly, Tyhry could "see" a thought in Marda's mind, "You took my hair?"
"I mailed a few strands of your hair off to a lab for DNA sequencing. I need to verify that you are like me, equipped with a rare Notch2NLC gene variant."
"You've had your genome sequenced?"
"Call it a birthday present. I'm sure you've had some expensive gifts. How much have you spent on your bike and your computer?"
"Not what it costs to sequence a genome."
Marda shrugged, "Look this is not a competition between us, but I'm starting to sense your thoughts."
"With your hands down there, I can guess what you are thinking."
"When you are ready, tell me how deep you are into my mind. I'll find out eventually."
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| Tyhry and Marda. Image by Leonardo. |
Tyhry put on her heavily padded bra. "I need plenty of nipple protection when I ride my bike."
Marda looked out the window at the dark of night. "My mom can drive you home."
"I can get home in the dark." Marda followed Tyhry outside.
Tyhry got on her bike and Marda kissed Tyhry on the lips. "Be careful."
"I am being careful. I'm not quite ready to tell you everything you want to hear, but I can tell you this. I've fallen in love with you."
Marda mused, "Then you can see my thoughts."
Tyhry drove off down the dark driveway, not bothering to activate the headlight of her bike. The hierion screen that surrounded the bike not only made it hard to see while flying but also automatically optimized light levels as seen by the bike's driver. A hundred feet down the driveway, Tyhry activated the bike's flight system and the autopilot flew her home, staying 50 feet above the familiar and well-mapped terrain surrounding Casanay. After reaching a top speed of 120 MPH, Tyhry coasted into the back patio of Casanay. Manny the bumpha was there, waiting for Tyhry in the hot tub. Tyhry took off her helmet and went to the side of the tub and told Manny, "I'm glad you are here. My cover has been blown."
Manny waved a hand, inviting Tyhry into the water. Tyhry began to undress. Manny assured Tyhry, "I've worked long and hard to get Marda here."
Tyhry climbed into the tub. "So, you told her how to find Casanay."
Manny giggled. "When your father depicts Windwood (the fictional analogue of Casanay) in his novels as being located on Cape Cod, it is never very convincing. I motivated Marda to figure out the truth. It was not that hard... for Marda."
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| Tyhry arrives home. |
"True, but I designed you and Marda to be clever for my special purpose, not as a benefit for you."
Tyhry allowed her hair nanites to fully activate and her hair took on the same glistening form as Manny's extravagant nanite-enhanced hair, each strand seeming to twist and float above the water of the hot tub, never getting wet.
"So it is true? What Marda said about me having a special Notch gene variant?"
"Yes, that is crucial for your ability to control your zeptite endosymbiont and use it for telepathy."
"So, she can read my thoughts?"
"Not yet. Marda is still in the process of falling love with you. She did not really know anything about you until just this week and she does not have the benefit of all your carefully curated Neanderthal gene combinations. You can experience love at first sight... Marda takes longer to emotionally bond."
Tyhry had long ago been told by Manny that her mother, Zeta, was half Neanderthal. "Marda sent my hair follicles off to a lab for gene analysis. This could could exciting if the world learns there are Neanderthals living in Arizona."
Manny giggled merrily. "Don't fret. I'll personally send Marda your genome sequence. No Earthlings will be involved in that."
"Marda is tryp'At?"
Manny shrugged. "Would you have me tell you things that you can find out for yourself?"
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| Manny the bumpha. |
"You don't have to worry about Eddy. For Marda, the DNA sequencing will just be a form of confirmation of what she's already been told."
"You've been telling her about my family?"
"Well, no. I delegated that task. Marda carries a time-traveling zeptozoan from the future inside her... my secret agent. Deciding how much to tell Marda is a delicate challenge. If Marda is told too much she will lose interest. She's driven by mystery." Manny dissolved into a cloud of zeptites that then slipped back into the Sedron Domain. Tyhry let the water jets of the hot tub pound her for another five minutes. After achieving a heart-pounding orgasm, she climbed out of the tub, took her bike to the garage and then went to her bedroom suite inside Casanay.
End Chapter 2
Related Listening: Call Me. Marda falls in love with Tyhry.
Next: Chapter 3 of "The Hierozyme Intervention".
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| Images by Leonardo and Flow. Visit the Gallery of Movies, Book and Magazine Covers. |
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